National Knowledge Commission: Recommendation on School Education

Abstract

School Education has been a central theme in the deliberations of the National Knowledge Commission (NKC) since its inception. The urgent need for ensuring universal access of all Indian children to good quality school education hardly needs to be reiterated. In addition to this being a fundamental right of every citizen, it is also increasingly evident that a robust, inclusive and high quality system of school education is essential for social and economic development. It is also essential if India is to transform the current demographic asset of a mostly young population into a dynamic national force for all-round progress. This makes it imperative to increase public resource allocation for education, as the recently approved Eleventh Five Year Plan of the Government of India has recognized. But it also requires related reforms in the systems for school, vocational and higher education, if such education is to have the desired effects in terms of development and the reduction of disparities in the country.